Rockin’ & Rulin’ Mothers

“With the sole care of so large a family, the religious instruction in the home was not so thoroughly doctrinal as in some households of today, but the mother instructed her children in the true religion of the heart that seeks first God and His righteousness;

“It was also one of the irrevocable laws of her home that no fault-finding or complaining of neighbors or friends would be tolerated.  The mother thus implanted in the children a spirit of independence as well as charity; and even those whose neglect was most inexcusable never heard directly or indirectly one word of complaint from the little family in their want and adversity.  Dwight Moody was not the only Yankee boy who could look back on that combination of charity for others with inflexible independence for one’s self that has made the New England character what it is.”

Dwight L. Moody

” ‘Trust in God’ was the brief creed of his mother’s simple Christian faith, and early in life the children learned to love that God and pray to him who is the strength of the fatherless and the widow.”        D.L. Moody~Biography

Betsy Moody was widowed at the age of 35 with seven children and twins on the way.  Her husband, who had been an alcoholic, made no provisions for their sustenance in the case of his death.  The laws at the time prevented the creditors from taking their home, but they took everything else–down to the kindling in the shed, leaving not even a warm fire for the widow and her children.

To say times were hard would be an understatement.  Many neighbors and friends urged her to disperse the children to different families in order that they might be better cared for.  But Mrs. Moody, despite her loss and dire circumstance was resolute, was of hardy stock and lived with one mantra:  “My trust is in God”.

And with that she braved the coming years with grace and wisdom, raising up, among her children, one of the most influential evangelists the world has ever known.

“Mrs. Moody was tender-hearted, and the children early learned the privilege of giving from their scanty store.  The hungry were never turned away from her door, and on one occasion when the provision for the evening meal was very meager it was put to the vote of the little ones whether they should give of their small supply to a poor beggar who appealed for aid.  The children begged that he should be aided, and offered to have their own slices cut thinner.”

D.L. Moody~Biography

Mrs. Moody didn’t have the easy option to prevent children, and though we can’t know, all the testimonies spoken of her indicate that not even her desperate circumstances found her wishing she had fewer, even had the option been available.  What we do see is a woman who accepted children as naturally as they came, and then fell back into the sovereign arms of Him who is over all things, believing He would care for His own.

Trust….do we need to resurrect this basic tenet of the faith we claim?  Do we even give Him opportunity to place in our lives the circumstances He deems necessary to woo and bind our human hearts to His?  Or do we mistake “responsibility” for interference in the heavenly scheme of life?

We see in the Moody family that the very conditions that our human nature repels are often the ones that so deeply carve the beauty in our character.

“His very limitations taught the poor boy [Dwight] of that day the ‘sharpness’ and ‘contrivance’ that grow into what we call executive ability…” D.L. Moody~Biography

I think God neither caused the Moody’s hardship (this hardship came mostly of Mr. Moody’s financial negligence) nor expected the Moodys to alter their lives to coincide with a future about which they knew nothing.  Rather, God is all-sufficient and all-knowing, and provided for their basic needs  just as He promised, rewarding Betsy’s faithfulness, and confounding the wisdom of the world with the “foolishness of God”.

Let me so trust.

*Disclaimer (because if I don’t say it, I’ll be challenged about it ;-))  While I admire D.L. Moody and much of his work, it doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with all his theology and his unique approach to evangelism.